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Chapter 169

I calmly sheathed my sword and then walked over to the table. The instructor was still standing there with his mouth gaping open. I reached out for the bottle of pills and necklace.

“I can have these, right?”

The instructor blinked, his eyes finally focusing on me. “Wha- oh, yeah…”

I snatched them and they immediately ended up in my Luminal Space. I then held out my hand.

“The book?”

He blinked and then pulled the book out from his robes. I had worried for a second that he’d try to keep it, but I could tell it was the original book and he wasn’t playing any tricks. I tossed it in my luminal space too. Part of me thought of destroying it in front of everyone. That would prevent its existence from causing any more issues, but I decided that no one would believe it was destroyed and it might even cause more problems as people tried to find out what contents I was so eager to eliminate. Everyone was still silent even as I stepped off the stage.

Huntington groaned as he rolled over, trying to get up. ”W-wait…”

I left the stage and then headed down the path. A short moment later, three people ran after me.

“Hey! Wait!” Ronald cried out as he ran up to me.

Two other people appeared on my other side, and although they didn’t seem to run, they managed to move faster than normal until they were beside me. This was the Lou sisters.

“I knew it!” Destiny spoke excitedly, her eyes bright. “You’re much stronger than you look.”

“I didn’t notice you using any skills, even then. Just how exaggerated are your mutations?” Fate asked.

“Why do you want to know? Impressed?” I smirked at her.

“No, I just want to know if you could defeat me fairly on stage during the tournament, why did you choose to assault me!” She snapped icily.

“Ah… well… I had to act the mouse to catch the fox… or something.”

“Hmph.” She crossed her arms unhappily.

“Well, I think it’s super impressive!” Destiny declared. “As expected of my servant!”

“Who’s your servant?” I glanced at the young girl.

“You are! We already agreed on it, remember? Since you’re not dead, you still must serve under me.”

“I’m getting married to Lady Capala!”

“That’s not important. That is that, and this is this. You agreed to serve me.”

“I never agreed to that!”

“It’s too late to go back on your word now.”

“What word? It doesn’t matter what this is, I’m not your servant!”

“Pfft!” A sound next to Destiny caused us to turn to Fate, who had her mouth covered but was otherwise looking straight ahead.

“Sister? Are you laughing at me?”

She shook her head.

“Good, in that case, we need to discuss your duties.”

“To hell with my duties! I’m living the bachelor life. I don’t like little girls.”

“Who are you calling a little girl!” She puffed out her cheeks. “I’m eighteen. I’m at a marriageable age!”

“To who? A child-lover? Ow! Did you just kick me?”

“You deserved it! Don’t call me a child.”

“You are a child! Idiot child!”

“Shut up! You’re the child! Child!” She tried to kick me again.

“Hey, stop trying to kick me.” I started dodging her smoothly.

“Hold still so I can punish you!”  She ended up chasing me around Ronald, who seemed oddly dazed.

“Hahaha!” Fate broke into laughter.

“You are making fun of me!” Destiny stopped trying to kick me and turned back to her history.

“It’s not that!” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “It’s just… I’ve never seen little sister act so carefree before. You’re usually so serious.”

“How is this girl serious?” I shouted from behind Ronald.

“Wow, you get along with beautiful women…” Ronald muttered in disbelief.

“I’m always serious!” She shot me a look. “Didn’t I save you from bandits the day we met… uh, I guess you need my saving, huh?”

“No, I didn’t,” I responded, looking at her pouty face and her displeased sister. “Are you two going to keep following us?”

“Us? Where are you going anyway?” Destiny looked around and then blinked when she saw the building we were already standing in front of. “The library?”

“What do you need from the library?” Fate cocked her head. “There are only martial techniques here, and since you just joined, my guess is you only have access to the first floor, which contained F-ranked techniques. These techniques are all useless, even among F-ranked techniques, since they are being given away for free, they aren’t worth much.”

Destiny nodded. “Sister isn’t lying. Unaffiliated Paragons without families might see some use in them, but since you belong to the Capala family, you can find better techniques.”

“I already read through the Capala library…” I frowned. “I still plan to look in here.”

“You wouldn’t find them sitting around in a library.” Destiny laughed like it was obvious. “Every family technique is a safely guarded secret. They’d likely be in your family’s vault. However, since that mansion is merely a branch, the best techniques would probably be with the main branch in the capital. I wouldn’t know how you’d go about requesting one of those. Why do you want to waste your time?”

It was no wonder Lady Capala allowed me to access the library unrestrained. It seemed like all of the important stuff wasn’t there anyway. There also probably weren’t very many techniques there not associated with horticulture anyway.

“Isn’t that my own business?” I responded.

In truth, I could transcribe the skill nearly instantly. Any given F-ranked skill might be weak, but if I read enough of it, it might give me the groundwork I needed to create better skills. Plus, it was better to have an F-ranked skill than no skill at all. Of course, I could also beg Lady Capala, but I didn’t want to feel more indebted to her, and the more I took, the more I would I’d owe her.

“Whatever. Do what you want, I don’t care if you waste time.” Destiny threw her hair back. “It wasn’t like I cared if you knew about the lecture this afternoon.”

I had turned away from her, but I couldn’t help but sigh at her obvious attempt to get my attention. “A lecture?”

“There are lectures every day. Whether you come to them or not is your choice.” Ronald looked eager to contribute. “Instructors will usually put the time and subject on the board. They’re good for learning certain basics as well as meeting and impressing the instructors if you want them to take you as an assistant or something. Once in a while, there is a special instructor…”

“Hmph, you think I’d have mentioned it if wasn’t a special instructor?”

“Huh? A special instructor? There is nothing on the board! I looked when I got here.” Ronald looked confused.

Destiny grinned proudly. “You think true experts announce themselves. You only learn about it if you’re in the right groups. I happened to find out that a famous paragon from the capitol was in town visiting the magistrate, and he agreed to lecture in a few hours! He’s going to be discussing the nature of evolution.”

“This is…” Ronald looked shaken, glancing over at me. “Are you going?”

What he was asking was if he could come with me. This was yet another way the Paragon families had power over everyone else. A paragon from a small family like Ronald’s wouldn’t even be told about these special events, so this was a lucky chance for him. I couldn’t help but remember the strange contemplative state I had gone in when I listened to Lady Sci singing. I had a feeling like I could potentially create techniques while in such a state, so maybe if this paragon was similar to her, it might be worth going.

“Could you tell me when and where it is?” I asked.

“I’m no longer in the mood.” Destiny tilted her head away.

Ronald looked heartbroken, while Fate merely shrugged helplessly.

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged and turned to enter the library one more time.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Another voice called out to me.

I couldn’t help but sigh again as I turned to Penelope approaching the group of us. She moved with rapid steps until she was right in front of me. Although she wasn’t breathing hard, her face was red and she was sweating like she had just run here.

“I am entering the library for a while,” I repeated, starting to feel like a broken record.

“Then, it is good that I came!” Penelope declared.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I naturally learned that your first day in the academy was today. Abigail told me she sent you to the academy with some ‘friend’ from another family.” She sniffed, causing Fate to frown slightly. “You are from the Capala family and you represent our family while at the Academy. How could I just sit back and watch as you wasted time and cause trouble? Thankfully, it’s not even noon yet. There is no way you caused any incidence so far.”

Fate and Destiny couldn’t help but exchange a glance. I suppose what happened early could count as an incident.